What a stirring moment at the National. Indhu Rubasingham’s wonderful production of The Father and the Assassin puts on stage an important piece of history, an arresting personal story and a vital, distinctive theatrical language.
Anupama Chandrasekhar, author of the explosive When the Crows Visit, has written the story of Nathuram Godse, the man who killed Gandhi. Or, rather, a version of the story: this is a first-person narrative, delivered with bias and embellishments. Tremendous Shubham Saraf – moving with casual fluidity, speaking with tumbling fluency – speaks to the audience like a standup: he cajoles, teases, sets out to bamboozle. His charm beats against increasingly toxic beliefs, as he seeks to convince – us and himself – that he was in the right to kill.
